Ever and ever and ever
by 0R1N0C0
Summary: Growing up.  gen fic, Sora centric, oneshot


Sora goes to school every day, except on the days that he doesn't, on days that are stormy or Christmas or the weekend. When school is finished – and it finishes every day at half-three in the afternoon – Sora goes to the play island with his best friends. Sora has two best friends.

Sora has Riku who's ten – _ten!_ – and knows everything there is to know ever. Riku told him about fishes and how glass is really sand, which Sora wouldn't believe because glass is precious and see-through and pretty and sand is yellow and scratchy – _if_ it hadn't been Riku who'd told him. Riku tells him about the world – the whole world – and Riku knows all about it. Riku knows about cooties, and why girls have them but boys don't.

Sora's other best friend is a girl but he doesn't think she has cooties. Kairi doesn't like girl stuff like dolls; Kairi likes cool stuff like running and hitting each other with sticks and Power Rangers. Kairi likes building things, and she has lots of Lego that Sora sometimes goes to play with, on days when it's stormy or Christmas or the weekend. Kairi tells Sora things too, like how she's gonna build a boat – "a big boat!" – and travel the world – "the whole world!". Sora and Riku can come too, she says, if there's space between the rubies and the silk and the dragons and if they don't break her favourite Mighty Morphin' Red Power Ranger.

Sora is nine-and-three-months years old, and very, very happy.

Sora now stays to school until half five every day, doing homework and practicing for the Blitzball team. He has two best friends, but lots of others as well, like Tidus and Wakka and Selphie.

His best friends are still the best. He has Riku, who's growing his hair long and makes girls turn their heads in the hallways, and Kairi, who's cut her hair so painfully short that she looks like a boy. Kairi makes Sora feel dizzy, but he doesn't know why. He'll ask Riku someday, on a day with no homework or Blitzball when they can go to the play island like they used to, when they were young.

Sora is fourteen, and just starting to grow up.

Sora finishes school soon, and barely has time for Blitzball, let alone going to the play island. He has to work harder than his friends, even his two best friends who he's known since he was small, but it's okay. They've never been as good at Blitzball as him, or swimming or races. Sora will let them have academics – hey, he doesn't even want it that much.

Riku's still there, coming to Sora's house every evening to talk him through parts of the course he did last year. He got asked to the prom by fifteen girls – _fifteen!_ a new school record! – but didn't go, stayed at home until Sora and Kairi dragged him out to the jetty, where they sat and watched the sun set all the way until it was starry and they could only just see each other's faces in the moonlight.

Kairi's there as well, still probably the prettiest girl Sora knows – and the coolest – but they're just friends, so it's okay. Kairi was the only girl in her woodshop class last year, but it was worth it because now she's building a boat in her back garden, talking about rubies and silk and dragons, making Sora remember long-gone days and piles of Lego, the first time he beat Riku in a race – but not the last, oh no – and a cave where he wrote his name with wobbly six-year old hands. Sora thinks that maybe he'll ask her to the prom first, just in case.

Sora is sixteen, with a Power Rangers poster above his bed that he's only a little bit ashamed of. Riku boasts about the theory test, the practical exam, and how he'll take Sora and Kairi for a drive on the mainland. Kairi thinks that he'll crash, and Sora should wait until she gets her license, then they'll drive on the mainland together. Sora, June baby, dangles his toes in the cooling surf as they watch the sun set and thinks about how the mainland is really far away.

Roxas does missions every day, except on the day that he didn't, on the day when they all had vacation and he went to Twilight Town to eat ice cream but ended up playing a game instead.

Roxas has two best friends: he has Axel, who's No. VIII – _No. VIII!_ – and knows everything there is to know ever, like what a heart is for and why girls are tricky and what you can win from a popsicle stick. Roxas also has Xion, who has a keyblade like him that makes her special and makes Roxas feel a little dizzy sometimes, but he doesn't know why. He'll ask Axel about that.

Roxas goes to Twilight Town every day to sit on the clock tower and eat ice cream. He watches the sun set and it's beautiful today, the best he's ever seen. He has his two best friends beside him, maybe the best two people in the Organisation. He'd feel very, very happy - if he had a heart, so he just calls the day his most precious memories and promises to remember them forever and ever and ever and ever.


End file.
